Meryl Streep to be Honored for Lifetime Contribution to American Culture
Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep is set to honored at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors for her contribution to American culture through the preforming arts.
The honors medallions will be presented on Saturday December 3rd at a State Department dinner. The next day the artists will be celebrated and saluted at the Kennedy Center Opera House.
Kennedy Center Chairman, David M. Rubenstein, said of the awards, “This year, the Kennedy center celebrates its 40th anniversary by selecting five extraordinary individuals whose collective artistry has contributed significantly to the cultural life of our nation and the world.”
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He added, “The sheer brilliance and breadth of Meryl Streep’s performances count as one of the most exhilarating cultural spectacles of our time.”
Streep said in statement that she only wished that her parents were alive to witness her receiving the honor. She said, “All that education, allowance, tuition, voice lessons, summer jobs, scholarship application deadlines and loving care and discipline – all that they gave me, bore fruit in a way they never dreamed.”
Streep will be honored this year alongside singer Barbra Cook, singer and songwriter Neil Diamond, saxophonist and composer Donny Rollins, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Previous recipients of the award include Oprah Winfrey, Martin Scorsese, Robert Redford, Elizabeth Taylor, Arthur Miller, and Fred Astaire.
Streep is regarded as one of the most talented and respected actresses of the modern era. She has received more nominations for Golden Globe and Academy Awards than any other actor in history.
She was born Mary Louis Streep on June 22, 1949. As a student she attended both Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama. She is distantly related to William Penn, the founder of the state of Pennsylvania.
